What if James lived?
by Amyrose1864
Summary: Lily Potter died but James did not. What if Harry grew up being loved by family? What if he never goes to Hogwarts but meets Hermione anyway? These questions would be answered. Manipulative!Dumbledore Good!Peter Badass!Hermione
1. The fateful Halloween

**31st October, 1981**

Lily Potter was home with baby Harry in her arms. Her husband, James, was at an order meeting, eventhough, they were supposed to be in hiding. Voldemort was after them, mostly her child, but them aswell as they would never give up their son without dying first. Lily was nervous. She was in the house, alone, with her baby and James was out. It was the fact that he was out that made her more nervous. What if he gets found by Voldemort? What if something happened to Wormy and Voldemort comes here? These questions were plagueing her mind.

An alarm went off to say that someone had apparated onto the property. She sighed in relief that, finally, James came home. She looked out of the living room window to find that it was not him but her worsed nightmare. The red head reacted instantly, bolting up the stairs to her sons nursery and blocking the door with furniture, she left her wand in the kitchen when she was cooking. "Damn it, Lily! Worsed thing that you could do in this situation!" She quietly scolded herself before speaking to Harry in the crib. "Harry, just know that I love you very much. I'm sorry you won't have any memories of me and that I don't get to see you grow up and go to Hogwarts. But just know that I will always be with you and I will be watching you from above." she kissed him on the forehead and the door blows open.

"Not my baby. Please, kill me instead. Let him live." The woman begged the evil wizard. "Step aside you filfthy mudblood. I am only here to kill one and that will be... him."

_Half an hour later_

James Potter arrived on the property with his best friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. The meeting finished an hour ago but he wanted to get something for his wife. They stopped laughing when they looked at the cottage. "NO!" James shouted and ran into the house with his friends behind him. They split up. Remus took the downstairs whilst he and Sirius checked upstairs. James took the bedroom and bathroom and that left Sirius with the only other room upstairs, the nursery.

When the Black heir peeked into the room, his heart almost stopped beating. On the floor, eyes wide open and lifeless, laid Lily Potter. He looked at the crib and found that his godson was alive and awake. He didn't hear the voices of James and Remus, not even when they were shouting his name and asking if they were in there, he couldn't find it within himself to move or speak. He didn't hear the sound of running footsteps coming from the stairs and another set added when they were coming towards the room.

Remus couldn't believe it. He refused to believe it. The woman he thought of as a sister, even before she started dating Prongs, was dead infront of the crib. "No..No...No.." He repeated before sliding down the wall in the hallway. His sister in everything but blood, the girl who didn't even care that he was a werewolf, when he told her she hugged him tightly and apologised that he was one, the girl that made him homemade chocolate every full moon to help him, was gone.

When James saw Lily, he screamed in anguish. "I'm so sorry baby, please come back to me." He rocked back and forth with her body in his arms. He begged for her to come back. The girl who he had fought for, for several years until she finally said yes to him in seventh year and said yes to him when he asked for her hand in marriage, the girl that he had sworn to love forever, his wife and mother of his child, was dead. He barely noticed Sirius move to Harry and picked him up. "We need to leave." Sirius croaked.He was trying to hold it together for his friends and his pup. Remus got up from the floor and walked in "Prongs, Padfoot is right. We need to go and tell the ministry what happened. We need to tell people that Peter betrayed us and the order." "Moony, send a patronus to Moody and explain what happened. I got him." Padfoot told the werewolf. With a nod, he left and did what he was told. James wasn't responding. "Prongs, we need to go. Lily would want you to take care of Harry and live happily. Please!" That got a reaction out of the man.

"Is he ok?" James' voice was hoarse. "He has a cut on his forehead, kind of a cool cut though. Shaped like lightning. It doesn't seem to hurt him, so..." The animagus passed the boy to his father when he was standing. "Well, this is interseting." Moody said from the doorway. "How on earth did the boy survive?" James and Sirius understood what he was saying. Harry survived, the lightning scar looked like the wand movement for the killing curse. "We don't know. Maybe Lily did something when she stood up against Voldemort. She was wandless, Moony found her wand in the kitchen." Mad Eye nodded solemnly. "You three should leave. I'll sort this out. She was a good witch, she will be dearly missed." He said as the men walked out.

They reached the outscurts of the property and apparated to Potter Manor. It was big enough for them to stay and have a lot more rooms left over. Nobody could say anything, and they didn't want to. They felt betrayed, angry, depressed and in despair. This was Peter Pettigrew's fault and they knew it. But they couldn't do anything about it. He was probably long gone by now.

**Godrics Hollow**

Dumbledore arrived at the cottage once he knew Mad-Eye was gone. He had come to collect Harry. The old man waltzed into the house and up the stairs to the nursery. "I am sorry Mrs Potter but this is for the good of the Wizarding world." He said down at the body before looking inside of the crib to find that there was no boy in there. "This is not my plan." He muttered to himself before looking around the house for the kid. "James Potter's alive. No! He was supposed to die, Sirius was supposed to go after the rat and Remus was supposed to believe that Sirius betrayed them and killed Peter." He was seething. His plan won't work now. The boy is supposed to look up to him as a grandfather figure and trust him with his life.

What was the point of imperiusing Peter Pettigrew all these years to become a death eater and betray everyone if he can't put this plan into motion.


	2. The new life

A few days after Lily's funeral, the boys were at Sirius' place. Harry had been crying for his mama a few times, leaving the men more heartbroken and angry. He was too young to understand what happened and why Lily wasn't ever coming back.

It was after James put Harry down for a nap that the men talked seriously, there were very few times that they did.

"I was thinking that we need to leave." James started the conversation.

"Prongs, I am happy with you and Harry living here. And it's safer for Harry to have more wizards living in one place..."

James held up his hand and stopped Sirius mid sentence. "I meant out of the country. England is... there is nothing for us in this country anymore. Pettigrew is still out, I don't want to run into him and get my ass thrown into Azkaban for killing him because he betrayed our family. My parents are dead, Lily is dead, Lily's sister doesn't even want to know her nephew so she is not a reason to stay. Everyone knows who Harry is, you saw the papers, they are calling him The-Boy-Who-Lived and the Saviour of the Wizarding World. He shouldn't grow up around this, where people only care about his fame and would only be friends with him because of that."

Remus nodded his head in agreement. "You're right. But where would you go?"

James frowned at his brothers, "You mean where would _we _go? There is no chance in hell that I would leave you guys behind. We stick together, we're brothers, we only have eachother now. Harry needs the both of you and so do I."

Sirius let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin, I would not have survived if you didn't say that."

The men snorted at their brother.

"Right, we need somewhere fun to live. Somewhere with good weather, a beach, good shops, great schools, both muggle and magical obviously..."

"If he says Hawaii, we are not taking him with us." Remus whispered to James.

"Agreed. Too much a chance of the Volcano erupting, especially if Sirius goes near it." James whispered back.

"San Francisco." The dog animagus announced, much to the surprise of the wolf and Stag.

* * *

**10th September 198****8**

Almost eight years had passed and life was good for Harry and the three marauders. James, Sirius and Remus had raised Harry the way they had always planned to since the day they found out Lily was pregnant. They couldn't be any prouder of the boy as he showed that he was mischevious, just like his father, but also smart, like his mother. Harry's teachers had a lot to say aswell, as he pranked students and teachers inbetween classes but did good with his work in classes. They didn't know whether to scold or praise him.

The marauders were suprised when they went to pick up Harry from school one day and found him talking to a bushy haired girl who was smiling brightly, but also had tear stains on her cheeks. Harry walked over to them, after talking to the girl and waiting to see her get in her parents car safely.

"So, who was that?" James asked with a smirk.

"Her name is Hermione, she was being bullied by a few kids and I helped her. She is my new best friend." Harry smiled widely.

Sirius and Remus gave eachother subtle looks and knew James was thinking the same thing. "Oh, and I think she might be a witch just like mum was. I saw her set a leaf on fire when I went to ask if she was ok." He whispered to them.

"Well, it looks like you guys are going to be best friends for years to come." Remus said encouragingly.

"She is super smart." The young boy praised his friend.

The family had left England a week after Lily's funeral. They moved to San Francisco and moved into a manor with six bedrooms with seperate bathrooms, an attic and a basement.

They thought it was the best decision they ever made, eventhough Harry wouldn't end up going to Hogwarts like Lily and James planned when they knew they wanted kids, he would still be going to magic school. The Marauders decided that he would go at the end of primary school or whatever they called it in California, he needed to experience the muggle world just like his mother had, even if she didn't know about being a witch before meeting Snivelus.

The family of four, got into the car and drove off.

* * *

Dumbledore sat in his office, he was in a very bad mood indeed. Eight years he had been looking for the Potter's, but with no luck. He had no doubt in his mind that James and Sirius, along with the half breed Remus, put up protections against people finding them. He needed the Potter boy at Hogwarts, not to mention the mudblood Granger. The prophesies needed to be fulfilled, he wanted the power that came with the two kids.

He could not understand how the mudbloods family has evaded him. One minute they were in Chelsea and the next... gone... completely disappeared from Britain. Their house was empty, a 'for sale' sign was attached to the gate in front of it. They sold their dentistry and no one has heard from them expect when the Granger's informed them that they were moving away. They didn't say where they were going or why they were leaving. And that was five years ago.

The headmaster sent people to look in France, Spain and Italy for both families. The Mudblood and her parents went to France every summer, so it would make sense for them to be there. The Potter family owned houses in Spain and Italy, so he checked there. But no such luck on both accounts. He then told his people to do a world wide search, he needed the two kids here. Their power was too great to ignore.


End file.
